From: http://www.natureandphotography.com
Honoring Nature with Lightroom???
[by Rob Sheppard]
Nature is important, not just to me, but for all of us. We can’t exist, for example, without plants and their photosynthesis. That produces both oxygen and food.
Sometimes I will hear that someone doesn’t use Photoshop or Lightroom because he or she wants nature to be real, to be as it is. Well, that doesn’t actually happen. The camera does not see the world as we do. We focus in on important details and interpret what we see. Colors, for example, do not exist as absolutes but are heavily influenced by things around them. Green will look different surrounded by red, black or white. This is the basis of some very important optical illusions.
In addition, the camera emphasizes light and contrast, whereas our eyes emphasize subject and context. Plus, all cameras are compromises in image capture. They have to be. The engineers making them have to create a camera that will work well for everyone from photojournalists to wedding photographers to advertising photographers to nature photographers, and that requires strong compromises in the imaging system.
In order to create images that honor and respect nature, sometimes we must use Photoshop or Lightroom to get rid of problems and weaknesses of the technology. If someone says that they only do “real” photos and don’t use Photoshop or Lightroom, they are saying that they think camera technology is more important than both the human experience of nature and nature itself.
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